


I Want You. Only You.

by Shujinkakusama



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, First Kiss, Fluff, Requited Love, Tumblr Ask Box Fic, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-15
Updated: 2017-02-15
Packaged: 2018-09-24 15:23:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9767939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shujinkakusama/pseuds/Shujinkakusama
Summary: For the prompt "I want you. Only you." on Tumblr! Garnet pines after Pearl so long that she doesn't see what's right in front of her. A Valentine's Day drabble that got out of hand. // Fluff, first kiss.





	

The first thing Garnet had ever learned about Pearl was that she, like Ruby, could manipulate the future. It was wild and unpredictable and _difficult_ to be around her; Sapphire struggled with her future vision, with paths that went dark years after she had started down them, and Garnet lagged behind Pearl and Rose as she came into herself. Pearl often held her arm and guided her through the world, even after the war.

 

Pearl was at her side often. She held Garnet up while the Fusion quickly learned that Pearl needed someone else’s strength as much as she freely offered her own, and Garnet learned to hold Pearl’s elbow and say nothing when her companion stared off into the distance after Rose Quartz’s shadow.

 

This persisted for decades, which stretched into centuries, and in turn to millennia. The addition of Amethyst made Garnet wonder, sometimes, if the future meant anything at all; she hadn’t seen her coming, either.

 

Most of the time, it was love that changed the course of the river they traveled. Rose Quartz loved deeply and often, and Pearl curled around Garnet like a blanket, desperate to be of use to someone and impossibly lonely.

 

If only she knew.

 

But one thing was certain; it was never the right time. Scarcely two thousand years old, Garnet was no fool. Rose Quartz was an insurmountable obstacle, one she didn’t often _want_ to overcome, for and despite her love for Pearl. The knight was as clueless as she was beautiful, and sometimes, when they were alone, Garnet fantasized about telling her.

 

_I want you. Only you._

 

And in her fantasy, Pearl responded in kind—and Garnet knew that she was dreaming.

 

Years passed. Cities and civilizations rose and fell. Rose Quartz took more lovers than Garnet could imagine, and Pearl’s lost gaze looked forward to a future that would never be. Garnet wondered sometimes if she were guilty of the same foolishness; for there _were_ futures where Pearl reciprocated, only Garnet didn’t know how to find them. Just that they existed as flickering possibilities.

 

She wasn't discontent. Whether Pearl meant to or not, she gave her just enough hope to keep holding on for the _what ifs_ that never seemed to come true. Their closeness came and went like the tide, but never really seemed to fade. Pearl was always just out of reach, whether she was tucked neatly against Rose’s side or whether her arm was folded around Garnet’s. As the scars of war faded from Pearl’s bright blue eyes, as life came into her step when she danced, Garnet wondered how she could possibly love her more—even when she was petty and jealous over Rose’s lovers, somehow, Garnet couldn’t find it in her heart to resent her. She was flawed, but Garnet appreciated it. It made her real. Made her feelings make _sense_.

 

Pearl wasn’t up on some impossible pedestal the way Rose Quartz was; Garnet saw her mistakes, saw her quick temper and jealous streak a mile wide, and saw her grow—she made steps forward, slid backwards, and was more human than Garnet thought Rose Quartz could appreciate.

 

Because surely, if she did, she wouldn’t pursue humans. Her passing fancy in both men and women lasted only so long, only as long as their short lives, if that, and they all grieved with her. For her.

 

Later, they would grieve without her.

 

Greg Universe changed the path of fate in much the same way that Pearl had, only to results that seemed Earth-shatteringly disastrous at first. The first ten years after Steven’s birth—they resolutely refused to consider it Rose’s _death_ , because the word was acrid and heavy and _wrong_ —were slower than any since the end of the war. Steven was a beacon of light in their lives, and Garnet watched Pearl learn again to smile with his help.

 

_I want you. Only you._

 

After five thousand years, she still did.

 

There were pitfalls. Pearl slipped and fell and Garnet doubted for weeks that she could risk her heart again to support the love of her life. But soon enough, there was no point in denying her feelings, and Pearl fought hard to regain her trust. Garnet could admire that.

 

Months passed. They defeated enemies, made new friends. Garnet briefly worried that she had lost her chance when Pearl chased a pink-haired human woman half way across the state just to come home with her phone number and no idea what to do with it.

 

And then Pearl surprised her.

 

They hadn’t been home long; hadn’t been back on Earth more than a few hours. The others were occupied by Connie relaying everything they had missed, showing them to the carwash, and Pearl slipped her arm through Garnet’s and pressed her face into her bicep the way she had almost a year earlier. Garnet felt her heart catch in her throat, and when Pearl asked to speak to her alone, she couldn’t find an excuse to deny her.

 

They walked along the northern side of the beach, and Pearl didn’t release her hold until they had to navigate the too-slippery tide pools, slick with seaweed and soaked from the ebbing tide. Garnet spotted Pearl almost dutifully, and when they were free and clear of any hazards, but still well out of sight of the beach house, Pearl took Garnet’s hands in hers and leaned daringly up for a chaste kiss.

 

Garnet didn’t dare to breathe.

 

“Pearl?” she managed, eyes wide behind her visor, and Pearl smiled like the world had never been ripped out from under her.

 

“ _I want you_ ,” Pearl said firmly, “ _Only you_. I… you don’t have to answer. But I wanted you to know.” She squeezed Garnet’s hands, and her smooth palms came in contact with the faces of her Gems. “I’ve been meaning to tell you for a long time.”


End file.
